Shepherding A Child's Heart by Tedd Tripp is an excellent starting point for formulating a sound Biblical framework for raising your children. It is one of the few books we know that faithfully cuts to the heart of Biblical child-raising (i.e., it's not about behavioral modification, it's about heart-shepherding). Please note that it is a 10,000-ft.-level kind of book: it's not full of parenting tips (though there are numerous ideas and examples), but what goals and principles parents should have. But it's the first one we'd recommend because you have to get the right bearings before you get to techniques.
Teach Them Diligently: How to Use Scripture in Child Training by Lou Priolo is a good companion to Tripp's "Shepherding." This book provides helpful tips on how to actually use Scripture in the context daily child rearing. Very valuable in giving direction on integrating not just our commands, but God's commands, into our children's hearts.
Don't Make Me Count to Three by Ginger Plowman could be described as a "mom's version" of Tripp's Shepherding book (above) with a very practical emphasis. She herself credits both of the above books with numerous insights and helps. I think this book is a useful addition to one's "parenting library" if only because it provides a helpful and humble mother's perspective; and mothers generally spend more time child-rearing than fathers.
The Duties of Christian Parents by J.C. Ryle is a classic pastoral work addressing Christian parents with their responsibilities. He does an excellent job issuing a number of admonitions which, though penned over one hundred years ago, ring true to even parents of our day and age.
Training Hearts, Teaching Minds by Starr Meade is a wonderful guide for daily devotions using the Westminster Shorter Catechism as a guide for memorizing basic theology. A more thorough review and our experience using this book is available here.
After listening to a sermon titled "Effective Fatherhood" by Al Martin, I was greatly convicted to examine and improve upon my own practice as a father. It's available online in transcript and audio download (highly recommended) as well.
“Raising Godly Tomatoes” @ www.raisinggodlytomatoes.com : a website created by a mother of 10 kids (so far). We recommend this website for its practical articles on child-rearing, and on discerning our children's heart attitudes (vs. just training them for outward obedience). There's also an active forum community of moms who discuss their various challenges and encourage one another to persevere in their labors.
Child Training Tips: What I Wish I Knew When My Children Were Young by Reb Bradley: This is an easy-read, very much a how-to format kind of book for child training. While there are principles taught, for the most part, Bradley simply goes topic by topic in addressing good methods and pitfalls that many parents face in training up (especially young) children.
The Heart of Anger by Lou Priolo. This book is especially helpful and diagnosing and treating issues of anger in parent and child with Biblical remedies. One thing we found as we read through it was how much anger in a child is more often than not rooted in a parent’s failure to manage his or her anger in a godly way. Priolo offers very concrete advice in this arena. If you find that you struggle with anger as a parent (or in any other context), or observe anger in your child’s behaviors, this is a must-read book!
John Piper has a sermon series/collection related to the subject of parenting and children titled “Raising Children Who Hope in the Triumph of God.” This is not a sequence of messages like Martin’s series above (#7). Rather, it’s a compilation of a number of different messages addressing the subject of child-rearing. We very much enjoy Dr. Piper’s preaching and writing and find many of his wonderful emphases well incorporated in this CD set.
We also found profitable a 40-lesson audio series from Al Martin titled “How Not to Foul Up the Training of Your Children.” It’s available in online streaming media format (RM & MP3) as well as at their Trinity’s online bookstore on 2 CDs containing the messages in MP3 format. The first half of the series is spent discussing various subjects on parenting in general, with much emphasis laid on being godly parents, not just godly parenting. The latter portion of the series is composed of thorough treatment of major themes in Proverbs as they relate to parenting. While we differed on some (admittedly minor) points of Martin’s teaching & application, much to his credit, Martin is willing to offer, with passion & conviction, counsel that is far too scarcely heard in this day and age of permissive parenting.
This last book is an afterthought of sorts, but an important one. Recovering Biblical Manhood & Womanhood has been a very helpful book in explaining and clarifying the nature of God's design and intention for godly manhood & womanhood. What has this to do with parenting? At the very least, it provides a Biblical framework for the marriage relationship, which is massively influential on how a man and his wife are in unison in their parenting. One of the most prevalent obstacles to effective parenting are two parents who are not “on the same page.” This book does a good job of providing a framework for marriage; and also for helping to form children into understanding their God-given roles for their futures.